Lucknow/Delhi, Aug. 17: Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, CPI chief A.B. Bardhan and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar were arrested today after they defied a ban to enter Uttar Pradesh for a rally against acquisition of land for a Reliance power project.

Police stopped them as they crossed the border with Delhi and marched into Ghaziabad with nearly 800 supporters on the way to Dadri, about 20 km away, where the state government has handed over land to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy Generation Limited.

“We had to ensure that the Allahabad High Court order prohibiting any encroachment on the acquired land is not violated,” state police chief Bua Singh said.

Singh, Babbar and Bardhan were escorted to the government guesthouse in Vasundhara nearby and released in the evening. The supporters were driven to nearby jails. Most of them were freed later.

After his arrest, Singh said the Samajwadi Party-led government has taken the side of industrialists and acquired the land from farmers at “dirt cheap” prices.

“It is now do or die for us,” he told supporters at a rally before crossing the border. “This is a fight against capitalism,” said Bardhan.